The group did great today despite some minor hiccups! We had some hilarious moments in security when they saw our signing puppet inside the baggage scanner. We also had our instruments go to baggage claim in Miami!?!?? But it was sorted out. Spirits are high and we are looking forward to what Christ is going to do tomorrow! We will be visiting our church for Sunday morning worship and then off to a nursing home in the afternoon! We do have wifi at the church so look for posts/updates in the evening.

- Jennings

You can also follow our activity this week on our team's travel blog!

oumcyouth.tumblr.com


Have a great night! Tomorrow we worship God in Jamaica!!!

Today, we had the opportunity to go church in Bannister where we will be serving all week. We were welcomed in by the church to some amazing worship and even had the opportunity to lead some songs for them. After a short service on Psalm 34:1, we spent some time interacting with the congregation and getting to try a coconut drop which is a coconut, ginger sugar candy. In the Afternoon we visited the May Pen Infirmary. Each Parish in Jamaica has an infirmary, but the May Pen one is the largest on the island with 145 residents consisting of mentally or physically ill residents. While we were there we read our bibles to them, talked about life and just loved on the less fortunate. They loved to sing to us so we got out the guitar, tambourine and shakers and had our own worship service in the infirmary. Tonight, we got a little more settled in with the other two teams here serving with us. We are looking forward to tomorrow and getting to start on our projects at the church and serving at the girls home.

Today was our first full day of ministry out in Bannister. We started our VBS by learning about gratitude. Taught the kids worship songs. They LOVED the motions! While some of us were in with the Basic School some of the team was helping with the project outside. We dug a trench and laid re-bar and started making the posts for the overhang. In the afternoon after an amazing lunch of Jamaican Patties we headed up to the girls home to start preparing the walls for the paint that we will paint on tomorrow. It was a good day just spending some time with the girls, leading some worship for them and allowing them to braid our hair and have some community time with them.

Today was an exciting day. We started on the painting project for the girls home. We got about half the house painted. It was great to see all the girls that were home helping with the painting and taking ownership of their home. Our hopes for tomorrow is that we can finish the painting project to be able to spend more time with the girls.

VBS this morning was a little more intense than yesterday. The children were a little less cooperative but we were able to use that for our advantage because today we talked about Compassion and how we should have compassion for each other.

Also, in the afternoon we did a conflict resolution with the girls at the girls home. just talking about what we can do to not get angry at each other. While that was going on the boys played a football (aka soccer) game down at the field with some of the local guys.

Today has been an absolute wonderful day. We started the day out by learning about Forgiveness in VBS this morning by learning about the king that forgave his servant for the money he owed him. I think the children really seemed to really like the story and they seemed a little more controlled today than yesterday. They are always so loving and love learning music and taking pictures.

We started the second part of the Girl's home today. We are hoping to at least finish all the bedrooms and possibly more so that at least each girl will have a freshly painted room. If not even more of their home will be done. We also in the afternoon went up to the girl's home and did some more conflict resolution while painting each other's nails. The girls love to learn about us and our lives.

Our work project got pretty far today. As you can see from the picture Mike and Brian are scooping up the cement and handing it off to Hunter and Nick so that we could pour the foundation of the overhang today. We can't wait to see the final project!

As our team finished our ministry in Bannister yesterday we had the opportunity to pray with Pastor Winston Bell for his church, community, and ministry. We have once again been blessed by our partnership with him and his church.

Today we had the opportunity to go to Ocho Rios, a cruise ship town on the north coast. Our team enjoyed God’s creation, shopped, swam, and relaxed after our hard week of ministry. We went to Dunn’s River Falls, a national park which features a gradual waterfall that flows into the ocean. After Dunn’s River we had a wonderful time of debriefing and worship and enjoyed a fine meal overlooking the sea. We’re now back and safe at the Old Harbour Bay Baptist Church and will begin our journey home tomorrow. We’ll post some photos from the last couple days tomorrow!

Our team was able to share with the children at the Bannister Basic School this week through a Bible program that focused on compassion, forgiveness, and other Christian themes. The week was filled with games, activities, music, and Bible lessons. It was a blessing for not only the children and the teachers at this little school, but also a huge blessing for our team and students!